I think its just shows how bad Manning's coaching was

It was abundantly obvious to me watching the team under him that players did not know what to do when they received the ball. There were no drilled in patterns of play or patterns of player movement to give options to the player in possession of the ball. They either had nobody to pass to other than an easy backwards or sideways pass or they had to pause to look for options which led to us getting caught on the ball. Opposition teams worked out that if they pressed our midfield (especially Topic) or full backs we would eventually give it away. We could not progress the ball up the pitch against aggressive pressing teams.

Couple that with the fact the players were not fit (not sure whose fault that is given we have an extensive fitness team who are presumably still there) and it was a terrible combination.

I think Manning is a classic "FA Coaching Badges" product with his "let the players work things out for themselves" manager speak which is just lazy coaching for me. It may work for Manning if he gets lucky with the right group of players or when things are going well but in general i think footballers like to be told what to do, at least when it comes to the basics of team shape etc. A friend of mine met one of the players recently and he just said that they all know exactly what they are doing now!

Posted By: Jim, Jan 21, 10:58:50